Left over center, right over center — 2nd graders are braiding a ‘Story Rug’

Illustrations copyright © Phoebe Wahl 2026 / Courtesy of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

A second grade classroom is in a braiding craze. They will braid anything: shoelaces, hair, friendship bracelets, the tails on their toy ponies. But Noah doesn’t have anything to braid. So his teacher takes a whiteboard rag and tears it into three long strips.

Soon, Noah is braiding on the school bus. And in the bath. He wakes up early to braid some more.